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Portfolio · Project 12 · Interactive game · November 2026

What is HEOR? Let’s play and find out

Health economics and outcomes research, HEOR, is the team that works out what a medicine is worth to patients and health systems, and proves it with evidence. That job starts years before launch and carries on long after. The easiest way to see it is to do it: take a hypothetical cancer drug from Phase 1 to post-launch, and make the calls an HEOR lead makes.

Evidence strength across the lifecycle

Sources

10
  1. NICE. Changes to NICE’s cost-effectiveness thresholds confirmed (£25,000 to £35,000 per QALY from April 2026, replacing £20,000 to £30,000). nice.org.uk
  2. NICE. Health technology evaluations: the manual (PMG36), including the severity modifier and managed access. nice.org.uk
  3. Regulation (EU) 2021/2282 on health technology assessment (joint clinical assessments: oncology and ATMPs from 12 January 2025, orphan medicines from 13 January 2028, all new medicines from 13 January 2030). EUR-Lex
  4. LearnSignal. The EU HTA Regulation and joint clinical assessments: what changed in 2025, and what arrives in 2028 and 2030 (PICO scoping; clinical assessment only). learnsignal.com
  5. Member State Coordination Group on HTA. Methodological guideline for quantitative evidence synthesis: direct and indirect comparisons. European Commission
  6. NICE Decision Support Unit. Technical Support Document 16: adjusting survival time estimates in the presence of treatment switching. NICE DSU
  7. NICE Decision Support Unit. Technical Support Document 18: methods for population-adjusted indirect comparisons. NICE DSU
  8. US FDA. Drug and device manufacturer communications with payors, formulary committees, and similar entities: questions and answers (final guidance, June 2018). fda.gov
  9. Congressional Research Service. Medicare drug price negotiation (eligibility 7 years after approval for small molecules, 11 years after licensure for biologics). congress.gov
  10. Legal 500. Congress expands orphan drug exemptions from Medicare price negotiations (One Big Beautiful Bill Act, July 2025; from initial price applicability year 2028). legal500.com

Some teaching points, such as AMNOG’s switch to the negotiated price from month seven, the end of NICE’s end-of-life criterion in 2022 and the 21st Century Cures Act changes to healthcare economic information, are described from general knowledge of those rules rather than a single cited page.

Be curious, not judgmental.

Design inspired by Spencer Gabor and Dieter Rams’s ten principles of good design.
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DisclaimerPersonal project, not sponsored by or affiliated with any employer (current or former) or any university I attended; views are my own. Developed with AI assistance, so errors or outdated details may exist. The company, colleagues, medicine and all numbers in the game are hypothetical; rules and thresholds reflect the cited sources as of November 2026 and may change. Not medical, regulatory, reimbursement or investment advice. Full disclaimer